# carnival
## English
### Alternative forms

* carnaval (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle French carnaval, from Italian carnevale, possibly from the Latin phrase carnem levāmen (“meat dismissal”). Other scholars suggest Latin carnuālia (“meat-based country feast”) or carrus nāvālis (“boat wagon; float”) instead. Doublet of carnaval.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɑːnɪvəl/, [ˈkɑːnɪvl̩]
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈkɑɹnɪvəl/, [ˈkɑɹnɪvl̩]; /kɑɹnəˈvɑl/ (referring to pre-Lenten festivals in various Romance-speaking countries)
** Audio (US):(file)
* (General Australian) IPA: /ˈkaːnɪvəl/, [ˈkaːnɪvl̩]

### Noun

carnival (plural carnivals)
* Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent.
    Carnival of Brazil
    Venice Carnival
* A festive occasion marked by parades and sometimes special foods and other entertainment.
** 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
* (US) A traveling amusement park, called a funfair in British English.
    We all got to ride the merry-go-round when they brought their carnival to town.
    When the carnival came to town, every one wanted some cotton candy.
* (sociology) A context in which transgression or inversion of the social order is given temporary license. Derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
** 2010, Gulnara Karimova, “Jackass, South Park, and 'Everyday' Culture”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 33, page 37:The social environment contains the ambiguous traces of carnival: it resists the ideology of capitalism and, at the same time, reproduces the capitalist social order.
* (figurative) A gaudily chaotic situation.
    a carnival of idiocy

#### Coordinate terms

* mardi gras

#### Derived terms

* blog carnival
* carnivalesque
* carnival glass
* carnivalic
* carnivalistic
* carnivalize
* carnivallike
* carny
* noncarnival
* precarnival
* surf carnival
* winter carnival

#### Descendants

* → Japanese: カーニバル (kānibaru)

#### Translations
### Verb

carnival (third-person singular simple present carnivals, present participle carnivalling or carnivaling, simple past and past participle carnivalled or carnivaled)
* (informal, rare) To participate in a carnival.
* (literary) To move about playfully or wildly.
** 1870 July, “Life in the Mexican Capital”, in The Old Guard, volume VIII, number VII, [New York, N.Y.]: [C. Chauncey Burr & Co.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 507:The spot is a marvel of beauty and taste; and here, where dust and sun carnivaled for so many years, thousands of every class congregate to listen each evening to music discoursed for the amusement of oi polloi.
** 1983, Alan Stratton, The Hunters, London, Sydney, N.S.W.: Futura, →ISBN, page 161:Sitting in the Chevy, Saturday night on Main Street carnivaling around her, she told herself that she understood, that Ross had made a mistake, had pre-arranged this celebration for tonight and thought that his date with her was tomorrow.
** 2007, Jonny Glynn, The Seven Days of Peter Crumb, New York, N.Y., […]: Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 210:A sudden bright white flash exploded before me. A kaleidoscope of silver lines drawn in rapid succession carnivalled in a blizzard of raging energy.

### References

* ↑ Ottorino Pianigiani (1907) “Carnevale, Carnovale”, in Il Vocabolario Etimologico‎ (in Italian), archived from the original on 2018-09-18

### Further reading

* “carnival, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* carnival on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Mardi Gras on Wikipedia.Wikipedia